Tiffin Township, Adams County

How Tiffin Township, Adams County began

Tiffin Township was organized in 1806 and named for Edward Tiffin, Ohio's first governor. It sits at the center of Adams County and contains most of West Union, the county seat, which the legislature established in 1803 and whose lots were first sold at auction on May 17, 1804. Its first settlers were Joseph Eyler, who built a cabin near Killinstown in the winter of 1795, and John Treber, whose inn on Zane's Trace, the pioneer road that opened southern Ohio, is now on the National Register. The township's early churches included the Baptist church on Soldier's Run (1802) and Fields' Methodist chapel (1802), now Stone Chapel.

Settled 1795 (Joseph Eyler's cabin near Killinstown); 1796 (John Treber on Lick Fork), platted West Union platted April 30, 1804, lots sold May 17, 1804, incorporated 1806 (township organized), by Joseph Eyler, John Treber, Andrew Ellison, Daniel Collier and others.

Where the name comes from

Named in honor of Edward Tiffin, Ohio's first governor, when the township was organized in 1806.

Before the town

No Native-specific sites or events tied to Tiffin Township were found in the sources consulted. Zane's Trace, which passes through it and carried the Treber Inn's trade, followed older routes, but Evans and Stivers's 1900 county history, the main source consulted, names no Native trail here.

Timeline

1. 1795 — Joseph Eyler builds the first cabin in the township, near Killinstown, in the winter of 1795; a cabin near the site of West Union, attributed to a 'Mr. Oiler,' stands empty when Rev. James B. Finley passes in 1796.
2. 1796 — John Treber builds a cabin on Lick Fork half a mile below the Waterford site, where the old tavern building still stood in 1900; Daniel Collier, Duncan McKenzie and others settle along Ohio Brush Creek the same years.
3. 1798 — The Treber Inn, built by John Treber on Zane's Trace five miles northeast of the future West Union, is dated to 1798 in the National Register database.
4. 1802 — The Baptist church on Soldier's Run is organized at James Carson's house in June by Rev. Thomas Ellrod, and the log Methodist meeting house known as Fields' (later Stone Chapel) is built.
5. 1803-04-13 — The legislature orders a permanent Adams County seat and names Isaac Davis, John Evans and James Menary to select a site; an act of January 16, 1804, fixes it on land of Robert McClanahan.
6. 1804-05-17 — The trustees sell West Union's 111 inlots and 20 outlots at public auction for $2,985, after platting the town on April 30; the 100 acres cost $760.
7. 1805 — Peter Shultz opens the first tannery in West Union.
8. 1806 — Tiffin Township was organized and named for Edward Tiffin.
9. 1806 — John Hood and William Russell open stores in West Union, and the Old Bradford Tavern is built (opened 1807) at Main and Cherry Streets; it later hosts Andrew Jackson, Thomas Hart Benton and Henry Clay.
10. 1820-01-15 — West Union Lodge No. 43, the parent Masonic lodge of Adams County, receives its charter.
11. 1825 — Andrew Jackson, chairing a Presbyterian commission to place a western seminary, and a majority of the commission favor West Union, but, according to David Dunbar, political prejudice and religious bigotry in the town prevent it.
12. 1846 — In June a group of Masons meets in West Union to reclaim the lodge charter and jewels surrendered around 1835; no lodge work had been done since.
13. 1867 — The Oak Grove Christian church, three miles from West Union, is organized.
14. 1976 — The Treber Inn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Stories

An inn on Zane's Trace

The National Register database dates to 1798 the inn that John Treber built along Zane's Trace, the road Congress authorized Ebenezer Zane to cut through the Ohio wilderness from Wheeling to Maysville, Kentucky, in exchange for land grants at the river crossings. The inn stood five miles northeast of what became West Union, on the route that carried settlers, mail, and trade through the newly organized Adams County. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Selling West Union, May 17, 1804

The Ohio legislature voted on April 13, 1803, to put the Adams County seat on a new, central site, and named commissioners to pick it. On January 16, 1804, an act fixed it on land of Robert McClanahan half a mile south of Zane's Trace; trustees including Nathaniel Beasley, William Marshall, Salathiel Sparks, Aaron Moore, Benjamin Wood, William Collings and John Briggs paid $760 for the 100 acres on which the town stands and staked out 111 inlots and 20 outlots in a series of one-day sessions in March and April, delivering the plat to Recorder Joseph Darlinton on April 30. On May 17 John Lodwick auctioned the lots; the whole sale brought $2,985. Henry Rape, a hatter, built the first house, a hewed-log one on lot 45, and William Armstrong used a ten-by-twelve room in it as the town's first store. Lots 63, 64, 77 and 78 were reserved for a courthouse, 67 for a jail and 46 for a public spring and school.

The Seminary That West Union Lost

In 1825 Andrew Jackson was chairman of a commission appointed by the Presbyterian General Assembly to choose a site for a western theological seminary, and he, with John Thompson of Chillicothe and Dr. Blackburn of Kentucky, a majority of the committee, favored West Union. According to David Dunbar, who was born in West Union and later wrote about the period, the town's 'radicals and fanatics' would not have it: the argument was that the Presbyterians, then Jeffersonian Democrats, were conspiring with Jackson to overthrow the government. The excitement over the abduction of William Morgan in New York soon divided the town again, into Masonic and Anti-Masonic parties each with its own newspaper, and West Union Lodge No. 43, chartered in 1820, gave up its charter and jewels about 1835. It was not revived until June 1846, when Dunbar and a group of local men met to reclaim them. Dunbar adds that the town later lost the state asylum for the insane to Athens because Adams County's Virginia-born legislator recoiled at having 'the crazy people' of the state domiciled in old Adams.

Photographs

Local history sources: en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · en.wikipedia.org · archive.org · commons.wikimedia.org · npgallery.nps.gov

Every historic place in Adams County on the full map

Mostly private wells The water here

• West Union Public Water System80% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)
• Adams County Regional Wd20% of residentsOhio River Valley Aquifer (wells near Manchester)

High-hazard dams (1)

Bridges rated poor (1)

Spills reported since 2021 (2)

Elections for office

Winners in bold. Results from the county board of elections' official canvass unless marked. The county's results on file run through 2024-11-05; later elections are not loaded yet.

Auditor of State record

• No fiscal caution, watch or emergency on the Auditor of State's lists.
• Financial Audit, 2023 to 2024, released 2025-11-18

Statewide question: State Issue 3: Voter ID

Local questions for Tiffin Township, Adams County, Adams County and its school district:

• Adams County: Authorizes an additional 1.5-mill property tax levy to operate Adams County Children Services of Adams County for 5 years, beginning in 2026.
• Adams County: Authorizes an additional 3.5-mill property tax levy for the EMS of Adams County for 5 years, beginning in 2026.

Races, candidates and every question for an address: your ballot. County offices and judges are on your county board's sample ballot.

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